User Scott posted a comment on the MozillaLinks.org website describing how to get rid of the new Firefox 3.1 tab switcher that I deeply dislike. Go to “about:config” and change both of these to false, then restart your browser.
browser.ctrlTab.mostRecentlyUsed
browser.ctrlTab.smoothScroll
I’m not usually a Car Dealership service department kind of guy. For example, today they wanted me to replace my battery - good idea, but they want $120 to do it (But there’s a $20 off coupon!). No thanks, I can do it myself for half that. But immediate service, free wifi, and knowing what they’re talking about - that’s almost worth it.
Just found out in chapel this morning that I won the drawing for a copy of Evangelical Lutheran Worship: Pastoral Care! Pretty cool deal - a $40 value.
Recently I have become aware of a couple of extremely interesting new interpretations of Biblical texts that are peculiar to new media.
The first is The Brick Testament. I really don’t know what to make of it. At times it is somewhat campy, and at many other times it misses the point entirely. But, as one of my classmates pointed out, sometimes it can do a pretty good job interpreting a text. For example, this rendition of the story of the Levite’s concubine does convey the cold brutality of what happens to the woman and the seriousness of the text in a graphic way. Mostly, though, it’s parody. I don’t recommend it as a faithful interpretation, and “The Reverend” behind it freely admits that he’s not really ordained, but as a conversation starter it is quite interesting.
The second is the LOLCat Bible Translation. It’s certainly even less of a faithful interpretation - mostly parody, really, and full of crass and foul language - but it has some real gems, too. Here are the instructions God gives Noah about constructing the ark (Gen 6.14):
14 Make gynormus bote calld ark ov gophr wud; maek roomz in teh ark, An cover it wif tar on teh insidez An outsiedz. An noah sed wait a minit u cant getz wood frm gophrs, u has 2 use treez. An Ceiling Cat sed i can callz a tree a gophr if i wantz cuz i iz Ceiling Cat. so stfu An go getz ur hammerz An sawz An stuff. An noah sed k, brb.
If that didn’t make any sense to you, here’s the Wikipedia article on LOLCats. After linking to that I think I have to cancel it out by posting the NRSV text too, for comparison’s sake:
14 Make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch.
Both sites address questions of adult content. The Brick Testament tags each story to indicate nudity, sex, language, violence, etc. The LOLCat Bible has language guidelines, but they seem unevenly enforced and at best make it appropriate for teens.
Know of any other projects along these lines? Let me know.
Logos, the people behind the Libronix Digital Library System, have come out with a plugin for Wordpress called RefTagger. It’s not a new idea - Scripturizer has been around for years - but it seemed good to me to try a new thing.
So now I can type John 3.16 or even Acts 3.1-4.31 (which I just got done doing a 14 page paper on for Educational Ministry) and everything should just work. Now if only I didn’t have to use the English Standard Version on my website - NRSV, anyone?
Also: check out the Semantic Bible project - especially the “BibleRef” microformat. Hat tip to Thomas Keene at Nerdlets.
I recommend this set of directions for getting BackupPC working. Using sudo (instead of having the backuppc server log in as root) is definitely a best practice, and nice-ing the process makes your computer more responsive if you’re trying to use it while it’s backing up.
People who are concerned with civil liberties and security should read this article from The Atlantic on the “security theater” - not real security - of the Transportation Security Administration: “The Things He Carried.”
I have begun to play with Firefox 3.1 beta2, and I have mixed feelings. I installed version 3.1~b2~hg20081014r20486+nobinonly-0ubuntu1~fta1~hardy (which is quite likely the longest, most involved, most unreadable version string in the history of computing) from Fabien Tassin’s PPA site and decided to try it out.
The Good: It’s really freakin’ fast. On javascript-heavy sites like Google Reader, GMail, or the backend SAGrader tools, the difference is phenomenal. It’s hard to explain, so you have to try it.
The Bad: It’s in beta, and so I really can’t blame it, but many of my extensions don’t work yet. But I’ve had a bug-free experience so far, so for a nightly build, that’s not much of a drawback.
The evil tab switcher
The Ugly: I strongly dislike the “preview” style tab switcher for about 172 reasons:
- It’s slow. With many tabs open, it sometimes takes a moment to open. I consider this a regression bug compared to the previous functionality.
- It flickers on quick changes. When I switch between adjacent tabs, I get a flash of something else in-between now.
- It doesn’t match the rest of my desktop. I use compiz, and my Alt-Tab switching has one slidey, three-item preview switcher and my browser has another. The juxtaposition is jarring.
- I don’t like “reflections” effects much, and I like to see the title of what I’m switching to. I get neither with this tab switcher.
- It violates the linear nature of having a long row of open tabs. With this new switcher, I can only see what’s ahead and what’s behind one tab. Instead of “I need to switch to a tab three to the right” I now have to think “Ctrl-Tab. Am I there yet? Nope. Ctrl-Tab. Not yet. Ctrl-Tab. Oh, there it is. Once more. Ctrl-Tab.”
Overall: I hope that a way is provided to disable the new tab switcher. With that said, Firefox 3.1 is so much faster that it’s shocking. When it is finally released, I’m going to be excited about the upgrade.
Just got word that this coming July is the 25th anniversary of the Missouri Scholars Academy. If you’re an alumn, be sure to take the survey and update your contact information in the directory.
